Microsoft Accelerator aims to help startups

So far, 20 companies (Tutor.com, iBloks, Spot Runner, etc.) have been selected to participate — receiving all kinds of marketing and technical support from the software giant. (I am still waiting to hear if any of the 20 “high-potential software startups” selected for the program are based in Seattle.)

Dan’l Lewin, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Strategic and Emerging Business Development team, explains more in this Q&A. He notes:

The Startup Accelerator Program focuses on a subset of the startup community — those with the highest potential for strategic partnership with Microsoft — and helps move them through the partner program and gain customer adoption. We typically do not fund these companies from a direct investment standpoint. Rather, we put enormous amounts of human and technology investment into our offerings.

Microsoft has been attempting to bolster its image in the startup and venture capital communities for years, hosting a VC Summit in Silicon Valley each year and offering online resources such as The Microsoft Startup Zone. It also has gobbled up a number of startups in the past 14 months.

Has the campaign worked? Are VCs and startups more likely to work with Microsoft today compared with 2001, when one Silicon Valley VC called them “the ogre to the north”?

UPDATE: Microsoft says that two Seattle startups are participating in the program, the online customer relationship management startup Entellium and Microsoft mobile software spin out ZenZui.

UPDATE: Matt Scoble of Experticity, a Seattle company that brings video-based customer service to retail locations, said that they also are participating in the new program.